Yes! Suomen suot. Excellent topic. In our class, we're interested in all sorts of aspects of Finland, but I'm sure none of us ever expected to find ourselves studying this subject. And it's a major subject if you think about it; it's only natural that a low lying country with all those lakes will naturally also have a wide variety of wetlands. I think it came about because Neil had just been telling us about a typically stressful encounter with Finland's summer insect life. Insects which thrive thanks to all those wetlands.

Anyway, Sami found us an interesting short video all about the different sorts of wetland on the YLE site, and here's the link - Suomen eri suotyypit. As you can see, although we have all sorts of words for boggy places in English, Finnish has even more. In my usual lazy way, I tried the text on that page on Google Translate. In my defence, Google Translate has really improved in dealing with Finnish since the early days; but on this occasi…

That's right - here's an Advent wordsearch for you to have a go at, because you're surely not busy at all in the lead up to Christmas. 25 words to find! All helpfully listed underneath. One thing: the theme is the Finnish Christmas, so the words are all Finnish ones. As well as trying to complete the puzzle, why not look up some of the words if you don't know them, and learn more about Christmas in Finland?
Sorry - anteeksi - it's not interactive, so you may want to print it out. And maybe click on it to enlarge it on your screen.

Here's a look at three specialist dictionaries. Although we definitely don't want to urge anybody into unnecessary spending, one or two of them might be perfect for some students. To back up what was said in our earlier post about buying books for study; if you only buy one book, get a good pocket dictionary. If a second; get a big dictionary. If a third, get a grammar. After that, well, I personally would recommend a verb book. Ja niin edelleen. And so on. However, after checking out a variety of textbooks spotted in bookshops in Finland, and squandering money on a few of them, I've actually found myself making use of these three dictionaries, and I think it's worth drawing a student's attention to them.

Oikeeta suomee Suomen puhekieli sanakirja (Vesa Jarva, Timo Nurmi 2009 Gummerus) is devoted to puhekieli, ie. spoken Finnish. It's definitely worth considering, or maybe another book doing the same job - I haven't seen one, but there must be others. Spoken…

The Decision of Finn-Guild's EGM: Finn-Guild is Winding Up "It was decided at Finn-Guild's Extraordinary General Meeting on 30 September 2017 that Finn-Guild will cease its operations by the end of October 2017. This will mark an end to Finn-Guild's charity work, which it has done since its establishment in 1965."
"Finn-Guildin vuosikokouksessa 30.9.2017 päätettiin, että Finn-Guild lopettaa toimintansa lokakuun 2017 loppuun mennessä. Näin ollen Finn-Guildin jo vuodesta 1965 lähtien tekemä hyväntekeväisyystyö suomalais-brittiläisen yhteisön hyväksi on tullut tiensä päähän."
Very sad news. Erittäin surullinen uutinen.
Thank you to all staff for great work during decades.
Suuret kiitokset vuosikymmeniä tehdystä ansiokkaasta työstä.

Tervetuloa Manchesterin suomikouluun! Welcome to the Finnish School in Manchester!
Do you live in Manchester or the region? Do you work in Finland, or ever go on holiday there? Perhaps you are looking for a new language to learn, one which will challenge and amaze you at the same time? Or do you simply like coffee and cake and pleasant company on a Saturday morning?

On the 16th of September - syyskuu - the Manchester Finnish School starts up again. We're based at the church of St Mary Magdalene in Sale, close to the M60 motorway, and between now and Christmas there will be 7 school sessions, followed by 10 sessions in the early part of 2018. They're usually two weeks apart, from 10am until 12.15pm on Saturday mornings. See the School Dates page and the Location page for further details.

Have a look at the Classes page. You'll see that we're set up to serve two kinds of student. We provide classes for young kids, who are usually from families in which one or both parents…

This post is about typing Finnish letters on your computer. It was sparked off by a welcome surprise experienced while watching the IAAF World Athletics Championships this week. While wondering if Finland had even sent a team :( and then with relief seeing the great Tero Pitkämäki lining up for the javelin final, I realised something else. Have you spotted it yet? (Yes, that's a hastily grabbed shot of my telly) They've finally managed to include diacritical marks or accents or whatever you want to call them, in screen graphics, as in this results table. Maybe it's been happening for a while; and I suspect it'll never happen in some places. The fact is, that you can happily Google Finnish names using just a and o instead of ä and ö if you want. But if globalisation isn't just going to be for the benefit of an English-speaking world, then there needs to be recognition that other world languages make use of 'accents' and they're diminished without them.

It's August - elokuu - and while you're dreamily lying on a beach somewhere, you suddenly remember that you were going to begin studying Finnish this year. And Finnish School starts up again in a few weeks' time. This article offers some ideas about books to look for; now's the time to decide if you really mean it :)

This is about basic reference books which can support your study, whether that's at home or on a course. I'm not going to discuss phrasebooks. They're great if you're going on a trip somewhere and you simply want something you can stick in your pocket, to help you recognise and understand some of what you see and hear around you, but they're not books you can effectively study with. And coursebooks are best left for another article. Any decision about a coursebook is best made together with your Finnish teacher. Don't be surprised if your class decides not to use a coursebook at all. They require a hefty investment and used properl…

We had a party! This was the scene at the Victory Hall in Mobberley on Saturday as we waited for remaining guests; we had around 100 in the end. Anyone wandering in by mistake would have looked on and probably thought it was a pretty typical social event, but maybe noticed the Finnish flags and the not very local accents. Would they have known it was Finnish? If they had, would they have been able to point to Finland on a map? Perhaps not; the UK has so many diverse communities these days, and the Finnish one isn't the most numerous by any means. But here was a nice cross section of the many Finns who have come to settle in the North West of England, Manchester in particular.

By July the School itself has long since finished for the year, and many of its members have gone away, some to enjoy Finland's here-one-moment-gone-the-next summer. I'm exaggerating - Finns may tell you it's like that, but summer is often a blessed time in Finland and I can well remember being a…

That's right, our big 40 Year Anniversary party is only a few days away, this coming Saturday! And we do have a few tickets left, so if this little reminder makes you realise you can come after all, don't hesitate, leave us a message on our Facebook page, and we'll sell or reserve a ticket for you, no problem.

Where is it?"I've never heard of Mobberley!" No, I hadn't either, but Kari found it for us and it's very easy to find, close to the airport, M6 and M56, near Knutsford. It's called Victory Hall; it looks like a nice place, with everything we need. What do we get? Well, there will be a few words to start with, some awards, along with some artwork by school members on display. Then, we're in for a fabulous treat, a buffet featuring some top quality traditional Finnish food, followed by music, a raffle and more.

It'll be nice to see people. Some old friends are coming, as well as current members, not to mention visitors from the wider N…

Here it is, coming very soon!
The time is near, for the Manchester Finnish School's big celebration of 40 years in existence.
It's a helluva thing, when you think about it. Not so much the sheer length of time, because many clubs and societies and voluntary groups carry on for decades or even the odd century. But it's an impressive status because it represents a very special continuity, of Finnish people in the North West and in Manchester in particular. The first generation came here and set up the School in the Sixties, and many are still around - in fact, one is still teaching, brilliantly, and inspiring us all! Many more have come to Manchester since; some have eventually gone back to Finland, but many have stayed for good (the craziest of all crazy Finns??).

So, we're having a party. It will kick off with a few worthy words, some special awards and such, but the main aim is to celebrate with fun and good food. We certainly haven't forgotten the kids, either, …

Modern Life! – Finnish Modernism and the International Dimension is an exhibition still running at the Helsinki Art Museum (it's situated next to the big cinema in the Tennispalatsi, next to Kamppi) until the end of July - and parts of it will continue until later on in the year.
If you're in Helsinki during the Summer or passing through, I'd encourage you to take a look. Although the title may not tell you very much, it's a major part of Suomi 100 and for myself, it was eye opening. The thing is, when you start to learn about Finland and its history, you hear a lot about the struggle for independence and in particular, the Winter War. Those are certainly extraordinary stories, but surely far more impressive is what Finland has achieved in peace. In population terms, Finland is tiny, and yet, as this exhibition at HAM shows, it has had a major impact all over world culture.
The exhibition is wide ranging and you will be familiar with many of its elements, especially su…

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